■The largest Labor Day crowd in two years jammed Northampton’s Three County Fairgrounds yesterday, with an estimated 38,348 persons in attendance. This was the biggest Labor Day throng at the fair since 1967, when 43,000 were recorded.
■Williston Academy and the Northampton School for Girls announced this morning a merger plan under which in September 1971, the two will become “Williston Academy and Northampton School for Girls.” As of next September, the Northampton School for Girls will be located in the Brewster Avenue, Easthampton area of the Williston campus.
■Helena Maria Shultz, wife of George P. Shultz, died Tuesday at her home in California at the age of 80. She was a seasonal visitor to the Hilltowns, where she and her husband, who served as U.S. Secretary of State from 1982 to 1989, kept a home in the Swift River section of Cummington.
■The Florence Community Center’s newest tenants will be men and women dressed in blue and wearing badges. The Northampton Police Department is hoping to open a substation in the basement of the 140 Pine St. building by Oct. 1, a move that officials say will make police work more efficient in the village.